Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines is the flag carrier of Singapore and one of the most consistently decorated airlines in the industry, working a single hub at Changi with a fleet of Airbus A350-900s and A380s, Boeing 787-10s and 777-300ERs, and 777-9s on order. It has no domestic market at all, so every flight is international, which makes its network unusually long-haul-weighted for a carrier of its size. The group also owns the low-cost carrier Scoot, and it was a founding member of Star Alliance.

Flying for Singapore Airlines

The ab-initio Cadet Pilot programme is fully funded by the airline, requires no previous flying experience and pays a monthly allowance during training, which puts it among the most generous schemes anywhere. Cadets qualify at Singapore Flying College, the airline's own training arm, partly in Singapore and partly at its overseas bases, then join the airline as Second Officers. The commitment is real: successful candidates serve for the duration of training and for seven years from the date they are appointed First Officer. Entry criteria are academic rather than aeronautical — GCE A levels, a diploma or a degree, or five O-level credits including English, mathematics and a science at one sitting — with published vision limits and a minimum height of 1.58 metres. Experienced direct-entry pilots are recruited separately.

Selection runs in four stages. The first is a long computer-based aptitude assessment sat online, which candidate accounts consistently describe as the Aon battery, though the airline names no provider on its own pages; interviews and a Class 1 medical follow. Because the scheme is fully sponsored and open to applicants with no flying background, the field is enormous and the first online sitting does nearly all the filtering. It is also the only stage whose content a candidate can meaningfully train for in advance.